Sydney

Gutted: the charred remains of Mount Stromlo Observatory — remarkably, some data survived. Credit: ANU

One of Australia's premier observatories has been destroyed by bushfires that have raged for days in and around the nation's capital, Canberra. Flames engulfed Mount Stromlo Observatory, which lies at the western outskirts of the city, on 18 January, melting telescope housings, incinerating workshops and destroying precious archives.

“It looks like it has been firebombed,” says Brian Schmidt, a research fellow at the Australian National University's astronomy school in Canberra, which operates the observatory. “All our active telescopes have been destroyed.”

No astronomers were killed or injured in the fires — which caused four deaths and injured hundreds in the area — but several of their homes near the observatory were destroyed. Preliminary estimates value the observatory's losses at more than A$20 million (US$12 million), although Schmidt thinks the final figure could be twice as much.

Many research projects have been cut short or temporarily halted by the fire, including a five-year programme led by Schmidt to digitally map the southern sky.

The observatory's construction workshops were destroyed in the blaze, including those that were to be used for a A$6.3-million contract to build an imager for the Gemini South Telescope in Chile. A A$5-million near-infrared integral field spectrograph for the Gemini North Telescope in Hawaii, which was ready for shipment, was also damaged.

Historical records have been lost, including drawings of astronomical objects, some dating from the nineteenth century. But buildings containing computers and databases were spared. “Our current research data seem to be intact,” says Schmidt.

The Australian National University has already given assurances that the observatory will be rebuilt, with resources and facilities made available to researchers to fulfil equipment contracts in the interim.